Colorado Politics

Democrat Pete Buttigieg launches Colorado ad campaign ahead of Super Tuesday primary

On the heels of a late-night rally that drew more than 8,000 people to a Denver hotel last weekend, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is launching his first television ad in Colorado ahead of the state’s Super Tuesday primary.

“Picture that first day Donald Trump is no longer the president. The sun is going to come up over a country even more divided with crises that still require urgent action,” Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, says in the 30-second ad.

The ad features an excerpt from a Buttigieg speech that says he’s running for president “to pick up the pieces of our divided nation and lead us toward real action,” including on health care, climate change and tackling “systemic racism and an American experience defined not by exclusion, but by belonging.”

It’s part of a seven-figure buy across Super Tuesday states, including Colorado, that vote on March 3.

Buttigieg is one of eight major Democratic candidates on Colorado’s presidential primary ballot, which went out to voters earlier this month. Until Saturday, he held the delegate lead after strong showings in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, but Sen. Bernie Sanders won the Nevada caucuses by a wide margin, putting him in the lead.

The Buttigieg campaign says it’s mounting an innovative get-out-the-vote effort in the 14 states that vote next week, reaching out to Twitter users who follow the campaign.

The campaign will also be releasing digital ads created by supporters in Colorado to reach voters in the state, a campaign spokesman said.

“We are building the campaign that will not only win the nomination but will defeat Donald Trump in November,” said Kenneth Gonzales, the campaign’s state lead, in a statement. “We see Pete’s message resonating across Colorado. Voters are tired of the politics of division and dysfunction, but don’t want to choose between a revolution or the status quo. Pete is offering bold solutions to our country’s greatest challenges in a way that unites the country.”

Buttigieg spoke at a town hall-style rally before an estimated 8,500 people Saturday night in Denver. He’s pitching himself as the moderate alternative to Sanders, warning that Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, is on the verge of securing an insurmountable delegate lead after South Carolina votes Saturday and 14 states, including Colorado, cast ballots next week.

“I am here to make a case for a politics that invites everyone in, instead of saying, ‘It’s my way or the highway,’ ” Buttigieg said at the Denver rally. “I am here to make a case for a politics that aims higher than replacing one form of divisiveness with another, but rather unifies this country, before it is too late.”

The only other Democratic candidates with ads on the air in Colorado are Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and billionaire Mike Bloomberg, who is outspending the competition by a wide margin.

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is picured in a camapign ad that started airing in Colorado on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020, ahead of the state’s March 3 Super Tuesday primary.
(via YouTube)
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